Payments to China

You can find relevant information here that you can use for payment instructions to China.

Generic information

Name of country:

China

SEPA country:

No

Country code:

CN

Currency:

CNY (Chinese Yuan Renminbi).

Account number designated as:

Not known.

Structure of the account number:

No standard account number structure is available for China.

IBAN:

Not applicable.

Specific information

Banks in China check strictly that the information about the payee, which you have included in your payment to China, exactly matches the information the Chinese bank has registered. So copy the payee’s name exactly from the invoice and do not abbreviate any terms. For example: do not abbreviate 'Limited' to 'Ltd'. The opposite also applies: if the invoice contains the abbreviation 'Ltd', copy it like this and do not expand it. If you have too little space, then use the field 'Extra line in name of'.

Payment instruction for CNY payment

For payments in CNY currency to a Chinese bank account (excluding Hong Kong), it is mandatory to indicate a ‘Purpose of Payment’ in the payment. Enter the ‘Purpose of Payment’ as a ‘description’ in your payment. After the code, you may add your own extra text to the ‘description’ field. In the chart below is shown which ‘Purpose of Payment’ code you should use for your payment. Choose the code that is appropriate to your trading transaction. This instruction does not apply to currencies other than CNY.

Purpose of Payment code
(to be entered in the 'description' field)

Examples

/BUSINESS/GOODS TRADE

Cross border Goods Trade
Cross border settlement conducted for trade in goods, including individual retail consumptions, general merchandise, goods for processing, goods required for repairing, goods procured in ports by carriers, transactions to be settled by letter of credit, bills for collection, payment of import equipment and advanced payment, etc.

Correspondent bank costs

When you transfer a transaction in euros of more than €250.00 to China with costs option SHA or BEN, processing costs are withheld from the transaction sum by the correspondent bank. These costs are €3.50. For transactions over €2,500.00, the costs are €10.50. Besides this, the payee’s bank may impose charges on the recipient. Do you want to be sure that the payee receives a particular amount? Then choose the costs option OUR. You then pay all the costs, and the payee receives the sum with no costs deducted.

Important for your payments

In order to allow your payment abroad to be processed correctly, it is important that you fully complete your payment instruction. This means that, if it is known, a valid BIC/SWIFT code for the payee’s bank should be entered. Besides this, the payee’s details must be complete, and include the account number, full name, address and town or city, to prevent delays abroad. So check your invoice and payment instruction, and request any missing details from your payee.